FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE Newt Gingrich and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) have added their voices to the call for electronic prescribing.
Kerry is among the sponsors of bipartisan legislation that would require physicians who treat Medicare patients to use electronic prescribing, starting Jan.1, 2011.
The bill would authorize Medicare bonus payments to e-prescribing physicians, beginning in 2008. The bill also calls for a 1 percent bonus payment for claims that include e-prescribing.
“Americans are ready for e-prescribing,” said Gingrich, the founder of the Center for Health Transformation. “With Americans using ATM cards every day in this country and abroad, we believe they are prepared for the massive benefits provided by an electronic prescriptions system – a 21st Century system.”
Other sponsors of the e-prescribing bill, the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act of 2007, are Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Jon Porter (R-Nev.).
Some of them joined Kerry, Gingrich and Andrew S. Warner, MD, of the Lahey Clinic at a Capitol Hill news conference in December. Warner is a board member of the American Medical Group Association.
Gingrich said the Center for Health Transformation is working with stakeholders – insurers, employers, physicians, pharmacists and pharmacies, technology firms and government agencies – to accelerate the adoption of electronic prescribing.
The center has created a working group dedicated to developing solutions to the issues of connectivity, provider education and the creation and alignment of incentives.
Interest in e-prescribing is rising rapidly. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt recently sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging that any Medicare legislation include a requirement that physicians adopt healthcare information technology.